Rustenburg - Claims that protesters believed muti would protect them from being shot by police were unfounded, Reverend Johannes Seoka, Anglican bishop of Pretoria, told the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana killings on Wednesday.

"[Claims about] the use of muti to protect workers against bullets... that's nonsense," he said.

"You are making black people [out] to be stupid. They are not stupid."

Seoka said he had worked in a rural area before, where soccer players indulged in muti before a match, but they knew that it could not prevent their team being defeated. It also did not prevent them from training.

"Most [of the miners] had been through school, they should know better. Muti does not protect them against bullets."

Rather, it was a tradition that most people were raised with.

"We are socialised to this kind of lifestyle," Seoka said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Scott showed video footage from, what he termed, "perceived rituals" performed by the protesters ahead of other violent confrontation with police, that left 34 miners dead after police opened fire on 16 August.

Seoka said he believed these deaths could have been averted if Lonmin management had been willing to negotiate with the striking workers.

"For me, if Lonmin management had adopted a tolerant attitude and put bitterness... aside, the massacre that took place would have been prevented."

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